Aaron's first Priesthood Ordination

Aaron was ordained to the officer of a Deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood on January 7, 2024 by his father Bart Richards with his Grandpa John Richards standing in the circle. 

 

Mean Girls the Musical

Emily has loved every minute she was involved in the school musicals and this year was no exception!    I was saddened to find out the photographer this year only focused on the leads and missed everyone in the background but Emily seemed to not care because when it comes to the musical it's the things in the background that make the best memories.   

 I asked Emily what her favorite memory was and she replied getting ready all together with her friends in the make up room.  

During tech weeks (the two weeks leading up to the performance) I'm exhausted watching Emily burn both ends of the candle spending every waking moment at the school.   Emily on the other hand can't get enough of how fabulous it is to spend every waking moment surrounded by her friends!

I use to expect Emily to be relieved after the final performance but I've learned that's when her eyes swell up with tears and she holds on a little tighter to her friends for the night because soon the "family bond" has to be broken.  This year being the last was an exceptionally emotional time! 

 

Fabulous Fall Photo Shoots

I sometimes look back at me in the 90's and  my frizzy hair and  think,  straightening irons were a straight up gift from Heaven.   Then I cringe a little bit because I hated my picture taken and even more so hated to look at pictures taken of me.   I wonder if my confidence would have been better in this world of instant selfies and good quality photos.  Or maybe my Heavenly Parents thought we better send this girl down before iphones and social media to give her confidence a chance.  

Anyway I love that my girls are so comfortable and confident in front of a camera.   I love all the memories they make and share with me.  Both of them this fall went with their friends up to the mountains when the leaves were at their peak for some fun pictures.  

 

Influencers

 In a world where everything is at your fingertips we have to be careful what we allow to influence us.     For instance Aaron likes to watch you tube reels.  If I go to you tube reels all I see are dumb tricks, how things are made and a ridiculous amount of basketball.  It's obvious an 11 year old boy is watching it.  

I use to just scroll through reels watching anything and everything that interested me.  I once shared what I thought was a funny reel making fun of husbands and didn't realize I had offended Bart until it came up in an argument.  I found a funny "kids in band reel" that I shared with my girls only to discover my feed thought I was a band teacher and sent me tons of content about teaching band.  One time my curiosity took me down a worm hole watching reels about someone's story about why she left the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.   Soon I discovered that a lot of my feed became mostly anti-mormon,  and husband bashing content.  I couldn't stand it anymore so   I took a break from social media. It felt refreshing to not waste my energy on mindless stupidity but I also missed some of the motivational posts from people like Come follow me Daily, a good parenting parenting influencer, new recipe ideas or Elder Holland posts that keep my perspective grounded on the important things.  

So I made a decision to be intentional about what I was watching and I was amazed at how quickly my feed switched to what I am interested in watching and feel more uplifted and inspired doing it.  I still can't figure out why instagram thinks I'm into mountain biking or obsessed with Disneyland but I just keep scrolling past those and maybe they will disappear.

I've taken my new intentionally being influenced approach a step further.  I only share positive teenager vibes posts/reels with my girls on their instagram message and occasionally slip in "math hacks to prepare yourself for the ACT" with Jane to clog her feed up with math, (insert evil laugh here).  

While raising teenagers, one thing is for sure, I feel so blessed for all the many great influences in my girls lives!!!!  They have so many voices to listen to and research shows that as a parent you take a side or back seat to being able to influence them the older they get.   Thank heavens for good people who take time out of their busy life to influence my kids life.  

My girls are so blessed with a ward and especially great young women leaders!   In September they arranged a super Saturday temple day where they started at 7 in the morning and got home at 9pm and did baptisms in 5 different temples.  

First  was the new Saratoga Springs temple.  (Emily told the Merinda the advisor she would love to get Wifed up here)

Then they went to the Provo City CenterTemple.  (Jane fell in love with the beauty of this temple)

Next up was the Payson Temple

Then the Provo Temple (which they commented looks like a birthday cake)

And lastly was the Timpanogos temple 

Emily bore her testimony about how she didn't want to spend an entire Saturday going on the temple tour but during it she felt inspired to encouraged to get her friends together and do baptisms so she could share her love of the temple with them.   Jane spoke in church a couple Sunday's after the temple day about how it was a long day and by the time they went into the Timpanogas temple she drained and tired yet she gained a greater love the temple and the work that happens there.  

When I grew up the Bishop to me was just another man in the ward who conducted sacrament meeting.  My kids love the Bishopric.    Emily says she's besties with the Bishop and Lee.   They are kind to my kids and don't take Spencer's honest yet slightly inappropriate boldness to heart. Even if Bart and I are dying when they stopped by our house on assignment from the Stake to get input from the youth about how they can help them as a Bishopric and after a while Spencer flat out said "When are you "jerks" going to leave?" They turned to us and said "Every family has that one who says it like it is, we definitely both do".   I'm not sure what Spencer meant by jerks but he laughed when Brother Camblin came up behind him at Sams Club and scared him and another time after Bishop Sackewitz came into Primary Spencer turned to me and said he's the "G.O.A.T".  I'm guessing that "jerks" to Spencer is not the same thing that "jerks' are to me.  

Here's a picture of the Bishopric and leaders when they disguised themselves for a mall youth "Where's Waldo" activity

President Hinkley used to say everyone needs a friend at church.  My girls are so blessed with the best of friends and good influences at church.    Even last Sunday as we were leaving church  Jane got a call from Ella saying "Your coming with me to Mission and Life Prep"  I heard Jane protest that she was hungry and didn't want to go but Ella then said come with me and we will stop by my place get something to eat and then go.  With that Jane went. 

Since birth my kids have always looked up to Max as someone who is obedient and steadfast in the church and also someone who's fun to be around.    There was never a doubt he wouldn't serve a mission and now my kids look forward to hearing about his mission adventures from his weekly emails.